The present invention relates generally to field of medical data processing, acquisition and analysis. More particularly, the invention relates to techniques for drawing upon a wide range of available medical data for informing decisions related to diagnosis, treatment, further data processing, acquisition and analysis.
In the medical field many different tools are available for learning about and treating patient conditions. Traditionally, physicians would physically examine patients and draw upon a vast array of personal knowledge gleaned from years of study to identify problems and conditions experienced by patients, and to determine appropriate treatments. Sources of support information traditionally included other practitioners, reference books and manuals, relatively straightforward examination results and analyses, and so forth. Over the past decades, and particularly in recent years, a wide array of further reference materials have become available to the practitioner that greatly expand the resources available and enhance and improve patient care.
Among the diagnostic resources currently available to physicians and other caretakers are databases of information as well as sources which can be prescribed and controlled. The databases, are somewhat to conventional reference libraries, are know available from many sources and provide physicians with detailed information on possible disease states, information on how to recognize such states, and treatment of the states within seconds. Similar reference materials are, of course, available that identify such considerations as drug interactions, predispositions for disease and medical events, and so forth. Certain of these reference materials are available at no cost to care providers, while other are typically associated with a subscription or community membership.
Specific data acquisition techniques are also known that can be prescribed and controlled to explore potential physical conditions and medical events, and to pinpoint sources of potential medical problems. Traditional prescribable data sources included simple blood tests, urine tests, manually recorded results of physical examinations, and the like. Over recent decades, more sophisticated techniques have been developed that include various types of electrical data acquisition which detect and record the operation of systems of the body and, to some extent, the response of such systems to situations and stimuli. Even more sophisticated systems have been developed that provide images of the body, including internal features which could only be viewed and analyzed through surgical intervention before their development, and which permit viewing and analysis of other features and functions which could not have been seen in any other manner. All of these techniques have added to the vast array of resources available to physicians, and have greatly improved the quality of medical care.
Despite the dramatic increase and improvement in the sources of medical-related information, the prescription and analysis of tests and data, and the diagnosis and treatment of medical events still relies to a great degree upon the expertise of trained care providers. Input and judgment offered by human experience will not and should not be replaced in such situations. However, further improvements and integration of the sources of medical information are needed. While attempts have been made at allowing informed diagnosis and analysis in a somewhat automated fashion, these attempts have not even approached the level of integration and correlation which would be most useful in speedy and efficient patient care.
Current methods of analyzing and integrating available data provide very little feedback to medical professional based upon their evaluation of data. In a medical imaging field, for example, it has become common for radiologist to access and view images electronically, even annotating the images via automated systems. However, automated techniques have not been extended or have been integrated into this process, such that feedback to the medical professions is extremely limited based upon data processing algorithms carried out on the same datasets as those used to reconstruct images. Even less integration has been provided in other types of environments, such as the analysis of in vitro test samples, patient records, and so forth. Such feedback could serve the purpose of improving patient care, as well as for training of medical professionals or further honing skills as new techniques and data become available. There is a need, therefore, for improved techniques designed to assist in providing feedback to human operators, particularly medical professionals, based upon computer-assisted analysis of available data.
The present invention provides novel techniques designed to respond to such needs. In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, a method is provided for performing an operation on data that includes steps of accessing data from a repository, the data including a feature of interest identifiable from the data, and receiving an assessment from a human operator regarding the feature of interest in the accessed data. Supplemental data is accessed including a known correct assessment of a similar feature of interest identifiable from the supplemental data. The accessed data, the received assessment, and the supplemental data are then analyzed via a computer-assisted data operating algorithm, and feedback is provided to the human operator based upon the analysis.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, a method is provided for processing medical data that includes accessing first image data from a repository, and reconstructing displaying a medical diagnostic image based upon the first image data. Data is then received from a human image reader regarding a reader feature of interest in the displayed image. Second image data is accessed that is derived from integrated knowledge base including data from a plurality of controllable and prescribable data resources. The first and second image data are analyzed via a computer-assisted data operating algorithm to generate a result dataset identifying a computer feature of interest in the image data. The result dataset is then compared to the data from the human image reader, and feedback is provided to the human image reader based upon the analysis.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, systems and computer programs are provided for carrying out similar functions.
The present invention provides novel techniques for handling of medical data designed to provide such enhanced care. The techniques may draw upon the full range of available medical data, which may be considered to be included in an integrated knowledge base. The integrated knowledge base, itself, may be analytically subdivided into certain data resources and other controllable and prescribable resources. The data resources may include such things as databases which are patient-specific, population-specific, condition-specific, or that group any number of factors, including physical factors, genetic factors, financial and economic factors, and so forth. The controllable and prescribable resources may include any available medical data acquisition systems, such as electrical systems, imaging systems, systems based upon human and machine analyses of patients and tissues, and so forth. Based upon such data, routines executed by one or a network of computer systems, defining a general processing system, can identify and diagnose potential medical events. Moreover, the processing system may prescribe additional data acquisition from the controllable and prescribable resources, including additional or different types of data during a single time period, or the same or different types of data over extended periods of time.
The analyses of the medical data available to the logic engine may be employed for a number of purposes, first and foremost for the diagnosis and treatment of medical events. Thus, patient care can be improved by more rapid and informed identification of disease states, medical conditions, predispositions for future conditions and events, and so forth. Moreover, the system allows for more rapid, informed, targeted and efficient data acquisition, based upon such factors as the medical events or conditions which are apt to be of greatest priority or importance. The system enables other uses, however. For example, based upon knowledge programmed or gained over time, the system provides useful training tools for honing the skills of practitioners. Similarly, the system offers great facility in providing high-quality medical care in areas or in situations where the most knowledgeable care provider and most appropriate information gathering systems may simply be unavailable.
In short, it is believed that the present techniques provide the highest level of integration of both data resources, and prescribable and controllable resources currently possible in the field. This system may be implemented in a more limited fashion, such as to integrate only certain types of resources or for the purposes of data acquisition and analysis alone. However, even in such situations, the system may be further expanded by the inclusion of software, firmware or hardware modules, or by the coupling of additional or different data sources along with their correlation to other data sources in the analyses performed by the processing system. The resulting system, in conjunction with existing and even future sources of medical data, provides a compliment and an extremely useful linking tool for the experienced practitioner, as well as for the less experienced clinician in identifying and treating medical events and conditions. This system may be further employed for targeting very specific conditions and events as desired.